Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The One, The Only, The Chinese New Year Dinner!!!!

1/25/09 After all day's waiting, finally, finally, finally, the Chinese New Year Dinner commenced.

Of course the best part of the meal was the conversation and seeing everyone. Of all the Wun cousins, only two were missing this year.

We had some very special dishes for the New Year. First and foremost, the must-have fish dish--as fish symbolizes abundance and everlasting wealth. Then, there's the chicken and pork dishes. There's also the very Taiwanese New Year dishes of pork sausages and preserved striped mullet fish row, sliced and served with raw radish and green onion slices. Uncle Jack and Aunt Cherie also brought their famous seafood dishes. Uncle Jack made my favorite marinated clams, abalone salad, and king crab legs. Aunt Cherie made some very fancy stir-fry dishes of different kinds of delicacies. There were so many dishes on the table we had to layer them--and the dining table was squishy with everyone around it. More were brought out from the kitchen as the meal progressed.

Miss A-Hen, the very capable domestic helper at Uncle William's, busied in and out of the kitchen. She was invited to eat with the family, but as it turned out, she didn't have a moment to sit down. Thanks to her, we had a wonderful meal where my aunts could sit down to eat with everyone else. As for helping out, forget the Wun men!! Two generations of Wun males were comfortably seated and I didn't see any of them showing any interest in kitchen matters! Shall we say typical male behavior on an international scale? (This is with the exception of Uncle Jack who cooked before arrival and brought dishes that hit the spot...Now that's my Uncle Jack!!)

Let's not forget about the beverages of the night. Dad brought a bottle of Chilean red wine from 1981; and Aunt Sherry also had some very special gaolian liquor from Kinmen Island (which is off the Coast of China but under Taiwan governance.) There were also some very unique tea served after dinner.

Last but not least there was also beautiful fruit platters of cherries, pineapples, guavas and wax apples served after dinner. The red, yellow, green and pink made a beautiful combination in the platter and it did help with digestion somewhat--somewhat b/c no matter how hard one tried to exercise self control, it's just not one of those situations where success is not really possible...thank goodness I went walking beforehand...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

看起來好好吃,也真的好好吃, 因為我也有參與到吃年夜飯. 嘿嘿

suewun said...

Yeah! it was a good meal